Software developer turned poker semi-pro.

Quick synopsis of my life.. I emigrated from Russia to Canada with my parents some 14 years ago. Two years of high school and 4.0GPA earned me scholarship to a local univ. I entered Comp. Sci program. Left after two years when I got a full time job at a local telecom company. Spent the next 10~ years writing a bunch of code for mobile phones and windows apps. Discovered poker from local home games I'd been regularly invited to and that stuck with me all the way till present.

I took a month off work last September to grind it out at poker. I'd split my time between live and online poker. Focusing on cash games live and MTTs online. In that month, I earned a little over $5000 online and nearly that much in local $1/$2 NLHE games. As my luck would have it.. just when I was due back to work, I had suffered a serious health set back, which nearly cost me my life. As a result, I spent the next 6 months in the hospital and had to have my right leg amputated. To date, that must have been the sickest beat of my life

While recovering at a rehab centre, I decided to get back to poker. I got my laptop and logged back in for the first time to my FTP account. I was pleasantly surprised to discover some $36 still on there (rakeback only as I had my sister withdraw all $$ to my real account after the emergency struck). I was determined to turn poker into a profitable business by grinding SNGs. So far, I'm sitting at a $1500 roll after some 800 games. This may not seem like a large number of SNGs, but I decided to dedicate a larger portion of my time to studying the game vs. actually playing it (about a 30/70% split). As my game gets better, evidenced through +ROI, I will be reducing my study time and spending more on actually playing the tables and earning $$.

My poker role models:
PimpinDonks
TheLipoFund
Dusty "leatherass" Schmidt